Posted on 02/21/2009 2:47:20 AM PST by blueplum
Gold for bread. So what is more valuable? The gold or the bread?
The correct answer is neither.
I really know of no one in our family that turned in gold in the 30’s. They simply kept it at home. Some turned it in because paper currency was very dear during the depression and many needed the currency to purchase the necessities. In the coming inflation this will not be the case. Currency will be come almost worthless and no one will turn the valuable gold in to the government.
Those too.
It was confiscated by the government.
He replied, "by 1933, it was hard to find a silver coin, left alone any gold coins in private hands, everyone was broke".
We think people will want gold melted down and tested or alloyed for karat.
Never a time in history that women didn’t like pretty pretty shiny things.
Gold is fundamentally a way of turning a man’s labor into sex. Now THAT’s alchemy!
Gold for bread. So what is more valuable? The gold or the bread?
I really know of no one in our family that turned in gold in the 30’s.
Actually, you can get a better deal buying gold jewelry at a pawn shop these days.
sw
If you mean gold coins, hardly anyone is familiar with them. How do you make change?
If you mean silver, how do you prove the silver content? Fine? Sterling? Coin? Mexican? I have seen scam jewelers who do a nitric test in front of the customer and then tell them that the result indicates sterling, when it indicates nickle. The customer is bamboozled. How many Americans know the difference between a real silver US coin and recent ones with less to no silver?
I wonder if we will all posses gold testing kits and scales with dwt weights? If you go to a jeweler’s studio, he will have both and the stamps for all gold karats and silver content.
I look at my Walking Liberty $5 gold pieces, for example, as 10th of an oz, or, at today’s prices $100. Yet, they are stamped $5.
My scenario presupposes local currencies independent of the US government money of recent vintage. But, anything can be counterfeited, that is always a risk. So, maybe there is opportunity in selling test kits and scales and perhaps holding workshops to teach folks how to use them and how to interpret the tests.
Or maybe the entire gold/silver/platinum idea is a non-starter. Probably better to trade ammo.
Great post at 47.
I agree 100% with 48, especially about dust settling. The exception is to use gold during SHTF to pay for an escape to save your life and your family’s lives. In that case, gold is the ultimate ticket to ride.
Did you see the superb Bosnia civil war flick, “Saviour?” What paid for Dennis Quaid’s final bus trip to safety?
“Those who believe that paper currency has real value should consider giving a ring made of paper currency to their gal friend rather than a ring of gold and watch their reaction.”
Great image!
It’s much easier to detect a fake gold coin than a fake $100 bill. You can simply weigh it.
When we are at the point of using PMs to buy food, then counterfeiting will be treated like cheating at cards and horst stealing in the old west. It will get you shot, so it will not be commonly done. A business which runs a fraud buying or selling fake coins is going to be lynched the same day. Through history, this has tended to keep people honest in very hard times.
Gold CANNOT be counterfeited, which is one of the top reasons it has always been a store of wealth. Nobody bothers to spend over 100K dollars to mint and gold plate fake Krugerrands, when simply putting the fake on a simple postage scale will reveal that it is base metal.
For a couple years close relatives who worked with cash and coin were watching for them and pulling them out. Hard to believe, but people are still spending silver dimes and quarters!
The net result is that we've got a few POUNDS of the stuff locked up in our safe. We've also got as much cash (several hundred) dollars in there, too in anticipation of 'banking holidays'.
Of course we've also got other precious metals (lead, brass, and copper) in usable forms by the thousand lot.
Believe it or not now we're concentrating on what I think in the short term will be the most valuable form of currency.
The calorie.
L
I have silver rounds 10-1 over AU. I also get a roll of nickels every time I go to the bank. It’s still 1963 for nickel! In a year or two when they replace nickel nickels with some base metal, you will wonder why you didn’t load up.
I recall the story of a German minister who tossed all of the collection plate copper pfennigs (sp?) into an unused bathtub for decades. He was able to feed himself through the Weimar hyperinflation with those pennies, because a copper penny was still a store of value.
When countries switch to “New Pesos” or “New Dollars” with zeros whacked off, they usually leave the metal change unchanged.
Forty genuine nickel nickels may still buy a loaf of bread when a billion dollar bill will not. SInce banks will (today) hand you all you want, why not stock up?
Well since we have 200 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of yeast, and a gallon of sourdough starter we're gonna end up with a sh**load of nickels!
Pennies are a good idea, but make sure you get old ones. The new ones are only copper plated zinc.
L
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